62 Iowa State undergraduate students presenting research at national conference

Posted Apr 9, 2019 1:00 pm

ISU students pose for a photo at the 2018 National Conference on Undergraduate Research. Photo provided by Svitlana Zbarska. Larger image.

AMES, Iowa — Iowa State University undergraduate students will head south this week to share their research and scholarship with their peers from across the nation.

The 33rd annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research takes place April 11-13 at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. About 4,000 undergraduate students from across the U.S. present their research at this annual conference, the largest undergraduate research conference in the country.

This is the third year ISU students have attended NCUR. Iowa State’s 62 students representing 30 different majors marks the university’s highest level of participation yet. In addition to presenting their research and scholarship, these students also will have networking and professional development opportunities.

Iowa State students worked hard to fund their attendance at the conference, said Svitlana Zbarska, coordinator of the Undergraduate Research Program. Zbarska said the outstanding support of faculty mentors, departments, colleges, the Undergraduate Research Program, University Honors program, IINSPIRE LSAMP program, Division of Student Affairs and the McNair Scholars Program all helped these students plan their path to the conference.

“NCUR is so beneficial for these students because it empowers them as scientists. It gives them an opportunity to present their research at the national level and attend one of the biggest graduate school fairs in the U.S.,” Zbarska said. “ISU students have attended this conference three years in a row, and I hope our undergraduate research will continue to be represented at the national level in the future.”

Iowa State students selected to present their research at NCUR, along with their hometowns, majors and research titles are:

Hannah Baysinger, West Des Moines, global resource systems, environmental studies and Spanish, “The Impacts of Diverting Water by Hand-Dug Channels in the Nile Watershed on Agriculture and Food Security in the Kamuli District of Uganda”

John Park, Seoul, South Korea, computer science, “Characterization of Malicious URL by Using Machine Learning”

David Reynolds, Grand Island, Nebraska, mechanical engineering, “The Development of a Microengineered Human Blood Brain-Barrier to Discover the Effects that Xenobiotic Compounds are Having on the Brain’s Blood Stream”

Contacts

Quick look

Sixty-two Iowa State University undergraduate students from 30 different majors have been selected to share their research and scholarship at the 33rd annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research April 11-13 at Kennesaw State University in Georgia.